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Recently, I was asked to present and sit-in on a roundtable discussion with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). I was representing the National MS Society on this occasion. The topic of the discussion was Senator Murray's proposed legislation having to do with veterans with MS. We were joined on this day by representatives from other organizations, including MS VETS, NW Paralyzed Veterans Association, and the National Gulf War Resource Center.
It seems that two forces of nature are colliding in our society; veterans (particularly Gulf War era vets) affected by MS and the Veterans Administration. A disproportionate number of Gulf War era vets are now being diagnosed with MS and "other neurological diseases" that resemble MS on several levels. Current arbitrary rules limit the time after service separation that a vet diagnosed with MS is automatically eligible for VA benefits to seven years.
Many of us know, all too well, that it can take much longer than seven years for an accurate and confirmed diagnosis of this disease. Currently, if a vet is diagnosed 6 years, 11 months and 30 days from separation, MS is considered a "service connected," and automatic benefits ensue. Get diagnosed one day later, and you're in for a battle with the government.
Senator Murray's bill would make MS what is known as a "presumptive disability." This means that, although science hasn't yet been able to connect MS to military service without a doubt, there is sound scientific evidence to suggest a connection between exposures veterans experienced and the disease they develop later in life. Presumptive service connection for MS is important to veterans because it helps them qualify for benefits and affords them appropriate treatment through the VA's medical system.
There is sure to be a long battle in Congress over such a specific bill. If this topic is important to you, even if you are not a veteran, the time to act is now. Senator Murray hopes to have hearings on this matter in the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee this session. As a Gulf War era veteran of the Coast Guard myself, I'll be watching closely.
Wishing you and your families the best of health.
Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.

subset: commoncrawl


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In today's musical landscape, if an album doesn't debut at #1, its chances of ever reaching that peak are slim. Albums don't "climb" the charts. They operate more like movies – their first week out of the gate is their biggest and they decline from there.
Huey Lewis & the News released Sports in the autumn of 1983. It first hit the Billboard charts on October 8, 1983. It wasn't until the next summer that it finally hit the pinnacle for a solitary week. By that time, the album had logged three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. "Heart and Soul" had reached #8, "I Want a New Drug" had climbed two spots higher, and "The Heart of Rock and Roll" was spending its fourth week at #6.
A fourth single – "If This It" – also found itself just outside the top 5. More than a year after the release of the album, "Walking on a Thin Line" was released as a fifth single, peaking at #18. All five singles proved their crossover worth as well by hitting the rock charts. The four top-ten singles did the same on the rock chart. "Heart and Soul" even climbed to #1.
Lewis & Co. had released two albums prior to Sports. Their 1980 self-titled debut didn't even chart. 1982's Picture This achieved gold status on the strength of the top ten single "Do You Believe in Love". The minor hits "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" and "Working for a Living" followed.
However, Sports turned the group into superstars. This was the heyday of the video age and Lewis & Co. embraced it wholeheartedly. They became mainstays on MTV and developed an identity lacking on their two previous albums. Lewis had an easy air about him; he was an everyman who was funny, self-deprecating, and likable. It was no accident that the album cover depicted the band hanging out at a sports bar. These weren't just the kind of guys who people wanted to hang out with; this felt like the local bar band which drew crowds week after week because they guaranteed a fun evening.
The group's next album, 1986's Fore!, would garner even greater chart success. It would spend one week atop the Billboard album charts, but send five singles to the top ten. Two of those, "Stuck with You" and "Jacob's Ladder", went to #1. However, the album's three million in sales was less than half the seven million which Sports moved. In addition, Sports ranks as one of the top 1000 albums of all time according to Dave's Music Database.
Click photo for more about the album.


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New Media, New Modes: On "Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media"
Humorous and surprising, smart and provocative, Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media (MIT Press, 2010) jumps from opposing viewpoints to opposing personalities, from one arts trajectory to another. The entire book is a dialectic exercise: none of its problems or theories are solved or concluded, but are rather complicated through revelations around their origins, arguments and appropriations. Overall, the book adopts the collaborative style and hyperlinked approach of the media and practice it purports to rethink. In other words, it is not just the content of the book that asks us to rethink curating, but the reading itself; by the end, we are forced to digest and internalize the consistently problematized behaviors of the "media formerly known as new."
Screening Screens
Kate Mondloch's first book, Screens: Viewing Media Installation Art (University of Minnesota Press), is a welcome study of the cathode ray tubes, liquid crystal and plasma displays, and film, video and data projections that "pervade contemporary life" (xi). The author reminds us that screens are not just "illusionist windows" into other spaces or worlds, but also "physical, material entities [that] beckon, provoke, separate, and seduce" (xii). Most importantly, however, Mondloch's approach is that of an art historian. She does not merely use art as a case study for media theory, but rather makes the contributions of artists her central focus in this, the first in-depth study of the space between bodies and screens in contemporary art.
Action, Reaction, and Phenomenon
In his book, Parables for the Virtual, Brian Massumi calls for "movement, sensation, and qualities of experience" to be put back into our understandings of embodiment. He says that contemporary society comprehends bodies, and by extension the world, almost exclusively through linguistic and visual apprehension. They are defined by their images, their symbols, what they look like and how we write and talk about them. Massumi wants to instead "engage with continuity," to encourage a processual and active approach to embodied experience. In essence, Massumi proposes that our theories "feel" again. "Act/React", curator George Fifield's "dream exhibition" that opened at the Milwaukee Art Museum last week, picks up on these phenomenologist principles. He and his selected artists invite viewer-participants to physically explore their embodied and continuous relationships to each other, the screen, space, biology, art history and perhaps more.
Fifield is quick to point out that all the works on show are unhindered by traditional interface objects such as the mouse and keyboard. Most of them instead employ computer vision technologies, more commonly known as interactive video. Here, the combined use of digital video cameras and custom computer software allows each artwork to "see," and respond to, bodies, colors and/or motion in the space of the museum. The few works not using cameras in this fashion employ similar technologies towards the same end. While this homogeneity means that the works might at first seem too similar in their interactions, their one-to-one responsiveness, and their lack of other new media-specific explorations -- such as networked art or dynamic appropriation and re-mixing systems -- it also accomplishes something most museum-based "state of the digital art" shows don't. It uses just one avenue of interest by contemporary media artists in order to dig much deeper into what their practice means, and why it's important. "Act/React" encourages an extremely varied and nuanced investigation of our embodied experiences in our own surroundings. As the curator himself notes in the Museum's press release, "If in the last century the crisis of representation was resolved by new ways of seeing, then in the twenty-first century the challenge is for artists to suggest new ways of experiencing...This is contemporary art about contemporary existence." This exhibition, in other words, implores us to look at action and reaction, at our embodied relationships, as critical experience. It is a contemporary investigation of phenomenology.


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Programs for Teachers
ASSET, Astrobiology Summer Science Experience for Teachers - Would you like to learn more about the interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology? Are you looking for a contemporary thematic science curriculum that is standards based? Are you in search of an exciting professional development opportunity? Are you ready to share your enthusiasm for science teaching with others? If so, we invite you to become an ASSET teacher. The ASSET experience will be intense and exciting, interactive and content rich, with presentations by leading astrobiology researchers from the SETI Institute, NASA, and the California Academy of Sciences. Scientists will share the latest in astrobiology research on the origin of life on Earth, the extreme conditions in which life exists, Mars exploration, the formation of planetary systems around Sun-like stars, and the search for life in the universe. The workshop features a combination of cutting edge science, inquiry-based teaching and learning, and leadership skills development to support you as a teacher and teacher trainer. Participants receive the entire Voyages Through Time curriculum and complementary astrobiology materials, developed by NASA's Astrobiology Institute, for use in their classrooms.
STAR, Science Teacher and Researcher - The California State University in partnership with Department of Energy national research laboratories and the NASA Ames Research Center is announcing the 2009 Science Teacher and Researcher (STAR) aspiring and early career science teacher summer research program.
SOFIA, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy — Airborne Astronomy Ambassador (AAA) Program


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I spent a full day at New York Comic-Con watching panels, and the one with the best footage was easily Fede Alvarez' remake of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. Not so much as an image had leaked from the movie, and while it had Raimi's stamp of approval (he hand-picked Alvarez to write and direct), we still didn't know what to expect. Judging by the trailer we saw, he came up with something truly terrifying that's strong enough to stand on its own. But even if the audience at the IGN Theater at the Javits Center were wary of a remake before they saw the footage, they were completely taken with the original Ash, Bruce Campbell, who also served as a producer on Alvarez' film. Half of the panel was Campbell just owning the crowd. At one point, Evil Dead remake star Jane Levy broke out her iPhone to record what was happening and said, "I'm sorry. I've never seen anything like this."
Hit the jump for my recap of the Evil Dead panel, and click here for all of our New York Comic-Con coverage.
Director Fede Alvarez comes on stage followed by star Jane Levy and producer Bruce Campbell. Campbell comes on stage in a bright red jacket, and walks in front of the table before he takes his seat as the crowd shouts "Bruuuuuuce!" We're then shown the first image from the film: a creepy, deadite child peeking out from cellar door.
When asked about the possibility of Evil Dead 4, Campbell demurs until the crowd begs him for it. But he says, "For now, let's give these people a new experience, done with handsome, hot young thespians ready to be covered in fresh buckets of blood…You will be the judge on this movie, but you will not be screwed on this one. And (pointing to Levy) if you need me to crown her the new Ash, I will do it right here and now."
Alvarez says Raimi Skype'd him asking if he would like to remake Evil Dead. "And if Sam Raimi ever asks you to do that," Alvarez says, "you don't say, 'I'm sorry. I don't believe in remakes.'" Alvarez saw the original when he was 12 and he wanted to bring the craziness, gore, and terror to the remake.
Levy says she went after the project, and Campbell was the one making sure she was up for the job like when he said, "Do you know what it's like to be buried alive?" And she responded, "No, but I like to!" and then Campbell quips, "And now she wants to fucking kill me."
Campbell says the movie is like putting on a comfortable Evil Dead shoe, and then you scream "Oh my god! I can't get it off!"
And then we get to see the exclusive sneak peek, and the sneak peek gets a standing ovation. I don't know if this will be the official trailer, but it was damn effective. It starts off a little slow by introducing the cabin and the Necronomicon with a little tension building, but then it gets to the self-mutilation that goes far beyond anything in the original, although there are still nods to the original like the rape-tree and the chainsaw. The flick definitely has a lot of potential. During the Q&A, multiple people get to the microphone and lead off their question by saying the trailer was awesome.
Alvarez says in terms of the tone, there won't be any comedy in the film (so not in the vein of Evil Dead II). It will be brutal and violent, and that definitely came across in the trailer.
Notes from the Q&A:
- Alvarez' script fell that way to have Ash as the protagonist. Having a female as the lead is more traditional, as Campbell points out. Before, they had a man screaming like a woman, and in the remake, they have a woman screaming like a man.
- Talking about hiring Diablo Cody, Campbell says "As middle-aged men, we don't really know how young people talk. Oh, and she also won a fucking Academy Award." Alvarez says that once he wrote the script, he wanted to have an American bring some cool dialogue to the characters, and she helped shaped that up as well as writing for a female protagonist.
- Campbell says on making the remake, "We just didn't want to see the damn green garden hose behind an actor's ear." He says he knows that some people are wary of a remake, "but we will accept your apologies the Monday after the movie opens."
- Levy makes clear that the main character is called "Mia", not "Ash". However, Levy adds there's a play on words if you put all of the characters names together.
- "I will be there in spirit in every frame of this movie," says Campbell
The panel ends with the crowd shouting "Bruuuuuuce!"
Evil Dead opens April 12, 2013. Click the image below for hi-def.


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James Bond soared past $100m through Sony and MGM licensees on Tuesday (Oct 30) and there should be plenty more from 007 this weekend as he ventures into more than 50 territories.
Highlights are expected to come from Germany, Argentina, Taiwan, Italy, Hong Kong, Spain and Thailand.
Sony Pictures Releasing International's Hotel Transylvania has generated $98.3m and the animation hit will cross $100m this weekend.
Paramount Pictures International's Paranormal Activity 4 stands at $55.4m and opens in France, Japan and Belgium. Bait 3D opens in New Zealand and Fun Size opens in the UK.
EuropaCorp's Taken 2 stood at $201.7m as of Oct 30 through Fox International, while Ice Age 4 had reached $713m and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter $73.2m ahead of the Japanese debut.
Two awards season contenders arrive in the UK: StudioCanal opens Rust And Bone while Entertainment launches The Master.


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Buy a car
from the safety of your home.
4-Door SE 2WD V6 Automatic
MSRP based on 4-Door SE 2WD V6 AutomaticChange Style
Filter Resultsreset
- 4-Door SE 2WD V6 Automatic $23,799
- 4-Door SE 2WD V6 Manual $22,799
- 4-Door SE 4WD V6 Automatic $25,799
- 4-Door SE 4WD V6 Manual $24,799
- 4-Door XE 2WD I4 Manual $17,599
- 4-Door XE 2WD V6 Automatic $19,749
- 4-Door XE 2WD V6 Manual $18,749
- 4-Door XE 4WD V6 Automatic $21,749
- 4-Door XE 4WD V6 Manual $20,749
Quick Specs
Gas Mileage 16 mpg City/19 mpg Hwy
Engine Gas V6, 3.3L
EPA Class 2WD Sport Utility
Style Name 4dr SE 2WD V6 Auto
Drivetrain Rear Wheel Drive
Passenger Capacity 5
Passenger Doors 4
Body Style Sport Utility
Transmission 4-speed automatic transmission w/OD
EPA Classification 2WD Sport Utility
Weight Information
Base Curb Weight (lbs) 3807
Interior Dimensions
Front Head Room (in) 38.6
Second Leg Room (in) 32.8
Passenger Capacity 5
Front Hip Room (in) 52.0
Front Leg Room (in) 41.4
Second Shoulder Room (in) 54.4
Passenger Volume (ft³) 115.8
Second Head Room (in) 37.8
Front Shoulder Room (in) 54.5
Second Hip Room (in) 51.9
Exterior Dimensions
Width, Max w/o mirrors (in) 70.4
Rear Door Opening Height (in) 34.9
Wheelbase (in) 104.3
Track Width, Rear (in) 59.3
Height, Overall (in) 73.6
Rear Door Opening Width (in) 39.4
Length, Overall (in) 178.4
Min Ground Clearance (in) 9.2
Track Width, Front (in) 60.0
Liftover Height (in) 32.3
Cargo Area Dimensions
Cargo Area Length @ Floor to Seat 3 (in) NA
Cargo Volume to Seat 2 (ft³) 44.5
Cargo Area Length @ Floor to Seat 1 (in) 69.5
Cargo Box (Area) Height (in) 36.7
Cargo Area Width @ Beltline (in) 47.0
Cargo Volume to Seat 3 (ft³) NA
Cargo Area Length @ Floor to Seat 2 (in) 38.2
Cargo Volume to Seat 1 (ft³) 65.6
Cargo Box Width @ Wheelhousings (in) 41.7
Fuel Economy
Fuel Tank
Fuel Tank Capacity, Approx (gal) 19.4
EPA Fuel Economy Est - City (MPG) 16
EPA Fuel Economy Est - Hwy (MPG) 19
Performance Specs
Displacement 3.3L/200
Engine Order Code NA
SAE Net Torque @ RPM 200 @ 2800
Fuel System EFI
Engine Type Gas V6
SAE Net Horsepower @ RPM 170 @ 4800
Trans Type 4
Third Gear Ratio (:1) 1.00
Clutch Size (in) NA
Drivetrain Rear Wheel Drive
First Gear Ratio (:1) 2.79
Sixth Gear Ratio (:1) NA
Transfer Case Gear Ratio (:1), Low NA
Trans Description Cont. Automatic w/OD,
Fourth Gear Ratio (:1) 0.69
Final Drive Axle Ratio (:1) 4.64
Trans Order Code NA
Second Gear Ratio (:1) 1.55
Reverse Ratio (:1) 2.72
Seventh Gear Ratio (:1) NA
Trans Description Cont. Again Electronic
Fifth Gear Ratio (:1) NA
Transfer Case Gear Ratio (:1), High NA
Disc - Front (Yes or ) Yes
Rear Drum Diam x Width (in) 11.61 x 1.97
Brake Type Power
Rear Brake Rotor Diam x Thickness (in) NA
Disc - Rear (Yes or ) NA
Brake ABS System 4-Wheel
Drum - Rear (Yes or ) Yes
Front Brake Rotor Diam x Thickness (in) 11.14 x 1.10
Lock to Lock Turns (Steering) 3.4
Steering Type Pwr Rack & Pinion
Turning Diameter - Curb to Curb (ft) 35.4
Steering Ratio (:1), Overall 18.6
Turning Diameter - Wall to Wall (ft) - TBD -
Spare Tire Order Code NA
Front Tire Order Code NA
Spare Tire Size P265/70R15
Front Tire Size P265/70R15
Rear Tire Order Code NA
Rear Tire Size P265/70R15
Spare Wheel Size (in) 15" x 7.0"
Front Wheel Size (in) 15" x 7.0"
Spare Wheel Material - TBD -
Front Wheel Material Aluminum
Rear Wheel Size (in) 15" x 7.0"
Rear Wheel Material Aluminum
Suspension Type - Front (Cont.) w/Coil Springs
Stabilizer Bar Diameter - Rear (in) 0.87
Suspension Type - Front Independent Strut
Shock Absorber Diameter - Rear (mm) 30.2
Suspension Type - Rear (Cont.) w/Leaf Springs
Suspension Type - Rear Rigid Axle
Stabilizer Bar Diameter - Front (in) 1.06
Shock Absorber Diameter - Front (mm) 30.2
Safety Features
Air Bag-Frontal-Driver Yes
Air Bag-Frontal-Passenger Yes
Air Bag-Passenger Switch (On/Off) No
Air Bag-Side Body-Front No
Air Bag-Side Body-Rear No
Air Bag-Side Head-Front No
Air Bag-Side Head-Rear No
Brakes-ABS Yes
Child Safety Rear Door Locks No
Daytime Running Lights No
Traction Control No
Night Vision No
Rollover Protection Bars No
Fog Lamps Yes
Parking Aid No
Tire Pressure Monitor No
Back-Up Camera No
Stability Control No
Other Features 4-wheel anti-lock brake system
Driver & front passenger air bags
3-point front seat belts w/height adjusters, pretensioners
3-point rear outboard seat belts
Shift interlock system
Side-door guard beams
Hood buckling creases
Front/rear crumple zones
First aid kit
Driver & front passenger air bags
3-point front seat belts w/height adjusters, pretensioners
3-point rear outboard seat belts
Shift interlock system
Side-door guard beams
Hood buckling creases
Front/rear crumple zones
First aid kit
Basic Miles/km 36,000
Basic Years 3
Corrosion Miles/km Unlimited
Corrosion Years 5
Drivetrain Miles/km 60,000
Drivetrain Years 5
Other Specs
Cooling System
Total Cooling System Capacity (qts) 9.0
Cold Cranking Amps @ 0° F (Primary) 550
Maximum Alternator Capacity (amps) 90
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. (lbs) 5000
Dead Weight Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. (lbs) 5000
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. (lbs) 500
Dead Weight Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. (lbs) 500
Looking for other models of the Nissan Xterra?Read reviews & get prices


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Incentives for Business in Uvalde
Uvalde is now a Federal Enterprise Community And Empowerment Zone, which means qualifying companies can receive up to $3,000/person in Federal Employment Tax Credits.
Uvalde has an active Economic Development Foundation and a $600,000 Revolving Loan Fund.
Uvalde has an unusually well developed airport for a small town. The airport is large and serves as a hub for three jet renovation companies.
Uvalde has a junior college and university satellite campus.
Companies can save 50% of wages for the first 6 months. The Work Force Training Program will pay them for participating employees.
Approximately 2,000 Uvalde County residents are currently looking for a job, whether they are now unemployed or are looking for a new job.
The unemployment rate in Uvalde County is approximately 7.1-10%.
Southwest Texas Junior College and Sul Ross University offer a ready pool of employees via their students and graduates.
Flexibility in site design and built-to-suit options is available.
Resource assistance is provided to help secure financing
Tax abatements, on a case-by-case basis, from city and county are available.
Planned and protected environment
Abundant and well-managed natural resources
To learn more information about the Empowerment Zone, please visit the Uvalde Area Development Foundation at www.uvaldeadf.com.
Some of the EZ information includes:
Tax Credits
Bond Financing
Capital Gains
Eligible Businesses
"Qualified Business" Definition
Wage Credit Calculation
Welfare to Work Tax Credit
Employee--Credit Amount
Credit Procedures
Business Operational Requirements
Qualified Zone Property
Environmental Cleanup Deduction
A Tax-Exempt Bond Transition
Time Period for Meeting EZ Business Definition


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Obama vows Israeli friendship on first visit as president
- Published
Barack Obama has said Israel has "no greater friend" than the US, as he makes his first visit to the country as president.
Arriving in Tel Aviv, Mr Obama told PM Benjamin Netanyahu the US was proud to be Israel's "strongest ally", and that "peace must come to the Holy Land".
On Thursday, Mr Obama will travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Peace talks, Syria and Iran's nuclear plans are expected to dominate talks.
But US officials have tried to lower expectations of any significant headway on restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Correspondents say Israelis are more preoccupied with instability in the wider Middle East region than with breathing new life into the peace process, which broke down in 2010 amid a dispute over continued Israeli settlement construction.
Settlement supporters are a big force in Israel's new coalition government.
'Eternal alliance'
Mr Obama was welcomed by Mr Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres at Ben Gurion airport, where he was shown a missile battery that forms part of Israel's Iron Dome defence system against rocket attacks.
"Even as we are clear eyed about the difficulties, we will never lose sight of the vision of an Israel at peace with its neighbours," he said in brief comments.
He added: "The United States stands with Israel because it is in our fundamental security interests to stand with Israel. Our alliance is eternal. It is forever."
Mr Netanyahu thanked Mr Obama for "unequivocally affirming Israel's sovereign right to defend itself by itself against any threat".
Mr Obama later visited Mr Peres at his official residence where, in a joint news conference, the Israeli president said the two nations were united by a common vision - to confront dangers and bring peace.
Mr Peres said he trusted the US in its policy of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
President Obama said he had reassured Mr Peres "that in this work Israel will have no greater friend than the United States".
Mr Obama then went on to talks with Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a notoriously frosty relationship.
The main purpose of this trip is rebuild bridges and improving relationships which could give him more leverage over the new Israeli government, the BBC North America editor Mark Mardell reports.
The leaders' initial warm, if scripted, exchanges were a step towards doing that, our correspondent adds.
At home, Mr Obama has been criticised for not having visited Israel in his first term as president, with some saying it shows he is not close enough to the country. And one recent Israeli opinion poll suggested a mere 10% of the public had a favourable opinion of the US president.
On Thursday, Mr Obama will make a speech to Israeli university students, and travel to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
End 'apartheid'
Security for the visit is tight, with thousands of Israeli and Palestinian security officers on duty in Jerusalem and the Palestinians' de facto capital in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Both Israeli and Palestinian groups have staged protests in the run-up to Mr Obama's visit.
Some 200 activists pitched tents in the area known as E1, a stretch of land in East Jerusalem on which Israel controversially plans to build new houses. The Israeli move has been widely criticised, including by the US.
Abdullah Abu Rahma, a protest organiser, said they wanted to send a message to Mr Obama: "Enough with bias and support for Israel."
In the West Bank city of Hebron, protesters wearing masks of Mr Obama and civil rights leader Martin Luther King called for an end to "apartheid".
There were clashes between the pro-Palestinian protesters and some of the settlers living in the divided city, and a number of Palestinians were arrested.
In Gaza City, protesters burned US flags outside UN offices, the Associated Press reports.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the visit was "ominous" and unwelcome, and that its consequences would be negative.
"It gives legitimacy to the occupation and confirms the political support of the United States [to Israel]," AP quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Israelis have been staging protests in Jerusalem demanding Mr Obama free Jonathan Pollard, imprisoned in the US in 1987 for spying for Israel.


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- Are you aged between 18 and 26?
- Would you like £2000 to spend between 6 weeks and three months in Europe?
- Would you like to find out more about other European countries and the people who live there?
- Could you write a report on what you discovered?
If you can answer YES to all those questions, READ ON
Each year up to ten Peter Kirk travel scholarships are awarded to promote understanding of Europe amongst young Britons, and of Britain amongst young people from other European countries. They enable young people aged between 18 and 26 to carry out a study project of their own choice in another European country (under some circumstances an older candidate up to age 29 might be considered). Click on What are the scholarships? for more information.
It is essential that you are prepared to travel abroad independently. Although you are not required to be a specialist in modern languages you will need to gather information on your project from conversations with people as well as from books and other media. You should, therefore, be confident that you will be able to talk to the people you meet in the country(ies) you visit.
The scholarships were endowed to commemorate the work of the late Sir Peter Kirk MP, who died in 1977, aged 48, while leader of the first British team in the European Parliament.
Click on Scholars to see who was awarded 2017 scholarships.
The 2019 scholarships will be awarded in March/April 2019.


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Wow – great play. He just bowled over 4 guys. Nod to Ted Thompson for that acquisition. He's been a positive addition.
There's the old Ahman Green
One Response to "There's the old Ahman Green"
Ace Says:
November 8, 2009 at 7:18 pm |
Should be an asterisk by that one. Taylor played 12 game seasons without 3 game playoffs. Taylor and Green –not in the same league.


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Maksim Chmerkovskiy And Tony Dovolani On Returning To Dancing With The Stars, The Dina Lohan Rumors, Their New Dance Studio In L.A., and More
Below is more of Tony and Maks on the Red Carpet for the ESPY Awards. Hollyscoop TV caught up with the two to ask them about Dancing With The Stars. They ask them if Dina Lohan is going to be on the show next Season and they say "Who"? Then Maks says they don't participate in gossip, but, he doesn't care if she is on the show. Tony says he wants anyone who "WANTS" to be on the show and they have to be "committed". Maks agrees and comments that if you don't want to do the show and you agree to do it, you will just make 20+ million people mad at you (SO TRUE!!!). They also ask Maks if he is returning to the show and with a lot of heart, he said, "YES" and that there was a "special arrangement" (hmmm, I so want to know what this is all about?). The two are super excited about their new dance studio opening in Los Angeles in two weeks as well. Lastly, they ask about about Karina's wedding and if they are going to attend and Tony completely changes the subject (stupid question and that interviewer knew better as she's been around the dance circuit for a long time.) Until the Karina part putting Maks on the spot, great interview!!


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The Blessings Allah Has Prepared for the People of the Garden
• Isn't there anybody hastening to the Garden? Because in the Garden there are unimaginable blessings. (Mukhtasar at-Tadhkirah, al-Qurtubi, pp. 306-307/499)
The Abundant Wealth of the Garden
• One brick of gold and one brick of silver, its mortar is of strongly scented musk, its stones are pearls and emeralds, and its soil is of saffron … (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, at-Tirmidhi)
The Beauty of the Dwellings of the Garden
• If as much of what is in the Garden as could be carried by a fingernail were to appear, the space between the cardinal points of the heavens and the earth would be adorned on account of it. If a man of the inhabitants of the Garden were to look down and his bracelets were to appear, his light would obliterate the light of the Sun just as the Sun obliterates the light of the stars. (Narrated by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, at-Tirmidhi)
The Extent of Property in Garden
• It would take 2000 years even for someone of the lowest degree of Garden to traverse all his property in Garden and the furthest part of that property will seem to be the closest... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 113/8]
Precious Stones and Metals
• … Those who dwell in the Garden of Eternity will wear crowns encrusted with pearls, the radiance of the smallest of which will illuminate the space separating the east from the west! (At-Tirmidhi) [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 99/8]
The Beauty of the Dwellings of the Garden
• A brick of gold and a brick of silver, its mortar is of strongly scented musk, its stones are pearls and emeralds, and its soil is of saffron. Those who enter it will be in affluent circumstances and will not be destitute; they will live for ever and not die…" (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, at-Tirmidhi)...
The Mansions of the Garden
• The mansions of Garden are made of red ruby, green emerald and white pearl. There is no flaw or defect in them. The dwellers in Garden look at them as you look at the stars shining in the sky, in the east and west ... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 225/6]
• There are such mansions in Garden that those inside see those outside, and those outside see those inside... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 125/9]
Cities in the Garden
• There is a river known as "Rayyan" in the Garden. A city of coral has been built upon it. It has seventy thousand gates of gold and silver. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 2, p. 326/4)
• In the Garden there is a gold pillar with cities of beryl [a bright, green precious stone resembling emerald] on it, and these shine like stars in the Garden… (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 1, p. 125/6)
The Palaces of the Garden
• In the Garden, there are palaces built of emeralds and jewels and in each building there will be 70 rooms of red colour and in each room 70 sub-rooms of green colour and in each sub-room there will be one throne… There will be 70 dining cloths in each room and 70 kinds of food on each dining cloth. There will be seven servants in each room… (Imam Ghazzali, Ihya Ulum ad-Din, vol. 4)... (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, 323/554)
The Cool Pavilions of the Garden:
• In the Garden the believer will have a tent made of a single hollow pearl, whose width will be sixty miles. The believer will have wives in it, and he will go to each of them without any of them seeing each other. (Narrated by Abu Bakr ibn Abdullah ibn Qais, Sahih Muslim, vol. 4, hadith no: 2838)
• The least of the people of the Garden in rank is the one who will have eighty thousand servants and seventy two wives, and for whom will be set up a dome of pearls, aquamarine and rubies similar in dimensions to the distance between Jabiyah and San'a. (Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, at-Tirmidhi)
The Markets of the Garden:
• So we will come to a market surrounded by angels in which there is that which eyes have never seen the like of, the ears have never heard and which has never occurred to human hearts. That which we desire will be carried to us, and nothing will be sold in it or bought. In that market the people of the Garden will meet each other, so that a man of high rank will come forward and meet those who are lesser than himself [and none of them will be low people] and the clothes he has on will amaze and delight him. Before he ceases speaking, even finer raiment will appear upon him. That is because it is not fitting for anyone to sorrow in it. (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, Sunan Ibn Majah; at-Tirmidhi)
• There is in the Garden a market wherein there will be no buying and selling, but forms of men and women. So when a man wishes a form, he will enter into it. (Narrated by Ali, at-Tirmidhi)
• It is certain that there are such markets in the Garden in which no goods are exchanged. When the inmates of the Garden arrive there, they will recline on fresh and bright pearly earth of musk. They will meet with each other as they did in this world. They will talk of how they were in this world and how they worshipped our Lord, of how they enlivened the nights in prayer, of how they fasted during the day, of the wealth and poverty of the world, of death… and of how they are the people of the Garden. (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 326/565)
The Food of the Garden
• "It is narrated that it was said, 'Place him in lofty Garden, where the fruits hang down.' [Great Hadith Collection-5, p. 413/10120]
The Abundance of Fruit:
• When opened, each fruit of the lote-tree of the Garden yields seventy-two colours and types of food, and no colour or type is like any other. (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 312/517)
• ... When one fruit of garden is broken off, another appears to replace it. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 98/9]
Examples of the Food in the Garden:
• The branches of the date palms in Garden are of a reddish gold. Their stalks are of green emerald. Their leaves are like pearls. Their fruits are the size of towers, softer than creal and have no pits. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-2, p. 451/4
• Our Prophet (saas) was given a plate of figs. He ate from them and said to his followers: If I had to mention a fruit that descended from the Garden I would say this is it… (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 313)
Water melons
• Benefit from the watermelon and respect it, because its juice is from the Garden and its taste is from the Garden … the watermelon is [one of the fruits] of the Garden. (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 313)
• The only fruit that resembles the fruit in the Garden is the banana. Because Almighty Allah says (of the fig), "Its figs are continual. But you can find the banana in winter or summer, at all seasons of the year.", (Death-Doomsday-The Hereafter and the Portents of the End Times, p. 312-313)
• … The most delicious of the food accompanying the bread of the People of the Garden is meat. Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. (Mukhtasar Tadhkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 363/654)
• If on seeing a bird, one desires to eat its meat, it will be brought immediately, tastily fried. (Buyuk Hadis Kulliyati (Great Ahadith Collection), Cem'ul-Fevaid min Cami'il-usul and Mecma'iz-zevaid, Imam Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman ar-Rudani, vol. 5, p. 414/10123)
Human Beauty in the Garden
• The maidens of the Garden are like ruby and coral. One looks at one maiden's face and sees himself even more clearly than he would in a mirror, and the smallest jewel therein will illuminate the east and the west. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 2, p. 337/7)
• The inhabitants of the Garden will be hairless on their bodies, beardless and black-eyed; their youth will not end, nor will their clothes become old. (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, at-Tirmidhi)
• In the Garden there is a market to which they will come every Friday. The north wind will blow and will scatter fragrance on their faces and on their clothes and add to their goodness and beauty, and then they will go back to their wives who will also have increased in goodness and beauty, and their wives will say to them: "By Allah, you have increased in goodness and beauty after leaving us," and they will say: "By Allah, you have also increased in goodness and beauty after us." (Narrated by Anas ibn Malik, Sahih Muslim)
• ... If one of the women of the Garden peeped into this world, she would illuminate and fill with fragrance everything between [heaven and earth]. Her veil is better than the earth and everything in it. (Imam Ghazzali, Ihya Ulum ad-Din, vol. 4; Sahih al-Bukhari)
The Beauty and Variety of Clothing in the Garden
• ... There are glorious mansions there, and broad rivers, and plentiful and ripen fruit, and beautiful maidens and many long-lasting and brightly colored clothes. That is a place of lofty, beautiful and pue lands, where sparkling water runs,... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 170/1]
• ... None of them is lacking in anything, so nobody will be distressed by the fine clothing they see on others. They wear finer clothes, which it would take an eternity to describe... [Tezkireti'l Kurtubi, p. 325-326/563]
The Trees of the Garden
• ... The lower parts of the trunks of the trees in the Garden are pearl and gold, and the upper parts are fruit. [Tezkireti'l Kurtubi, p. 315/523]
• The branches of these trees never dry up, their leaves never fall, their water never fails and their fruit never ends. [Belief in Paradise in the Divine Faiths, p. 54]
The Rivers and Seas in the Garden
• There is a sea of honey, a sea of wine, a sea of milk and a sea of water in Garden. Other rivers will spring from these [(Tirmidhi), Geat Hadith Collection-5, p.409/10097]
The Beautiful Landscape of the Garden
• The trees to be planted in the Garden are very lush. Because the water there is good, and the soil bountiful... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 72/14]
• [It is built of] one brick of gold and one brick of silver, its mortar is of strongly scented musk, its stones are pearls and emeralds, and its soil is of saffron … (At-Tirmidhi; Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad)
The Expanse of the Garden
• When the People of the Garden settle in Allah's Garden a wide space will be left over. There, Allah will populate three hundred and sixty worlds, each one of which is larger than the world from its creation to its end. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 1, p. 30/5)
The Fragrant Aromas of the Garden
• If a woman of Paridise looked at the ground, the Earth would be filled with her delightful scent and the radiance of the Earth would suppress that of the Sun and Moon. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-2, p. 355/5]
• If a maiden showed the Earth (the people of the earth) just one of her fingers, then every living thing would smell her perfume. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-2, p. 355/4]
• The north wind will blow and will scatter fragrance on their faces and on their clothes and add to their goodness and beauty. (Narrated by Anas, Sahih Muslim). [Tazkira-i Qurtubi, s. 325/562]
Beautiful Sounds in the Garden:
• There are places in the Garden where the maidens meet. They will raise their voices, and living things will never have heard such beautiful voices before... [(Tirmidhi), Great Hadith Collection, p. 409/10099]
• Two maidens will accompany all those who enter Garden, one at his head and one at his feet, and spirits and djinn will recite verses in the loveliest voices ever heard... [Ramuz Al-Ahadith-2, p. 384/7]
Eternal Life and Youth in the Garden
• Whoever enters the Garden will be in bliss and suffer no distress; his clothes will not wear out nor will his youth end. (Ahmad, Musnad; at-Tirmidhi; Narrated by Abu Hurayra, Sahih Muslim)
Eternal Youth in the Garden
• You will enter the Garden with the beauty of the beardless Yusuf, with his kohl, with the speech of Eyyup and as young people aged around thirty. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 249/15]
The People of the Garden Are the Same Age
• Whoever of the People of the Garden die, whether while young or old, will be turned into young people of thirty years of age in the Garden, never growing older than that… (Narrated by Abu Sa'id, Sunan Ibn Majah; at-Tirmidhi)
In the Garden All Desires Are Fulfilled
• If you are intended for the Garden and say "I would like to ride a horse of red ruby," you will do so. If you say you wish to fly, you will fly. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 1, p. 149/5)
• The Messenger of Allah said that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said: "I have prepared for My servants which no eye has seen, no ear has heard and has never occurred to a human heart …" (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, Sahih Muslim, vol. 4)
Desires in the Garden Will Be Fulfilled Instantly
• If on seeing a bird, one desires to eat its meat, it will immediately be brought, tastily fried. (Buyuk Hadis Kulliyati (Great Ahadith Collection), Cem'ul-Fevaid min Cami'il-usul and Mecma'iz-zevaid, Imam Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman ar-Rudani, vol. 5, p. 414/10123)
• 'There was a man in the Garden who sought permission from Allah to engage in cultivation, so Allah asked him, 'Do you not have what you wish?' The man answered: 'Yes, but I like to cultivate.' Allah granted him leave, so he rushed to plant the seed; then, he watched to see what happens and within the blink of an eye, the seed grew into a huge tree with fruits as big as a mountain…" (Sahih al-Bukhari)
The Ability to Change One's Form as Desired
• There is in the Garden a market wherein there will be no buying and selling, but forms of men and women. So when a man wishes a form, he will enter into it. (Narrated by Ali, at-Tirmidhi)
A Person Who Wants A Child Can Have One
• When a believer desires a child in the Garden, its gestation and birth will be in one hour, as he desires. (Sunan Ibn Majah; at-Tirmidhi)
There Will Be No Night
• There is no night in the Garden. It consists of brightness and light. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 2, p. 366/4)
There Will Be No Sleep:
• A man asked the Messenger of Allah: "Will the inmates of the Garden sleep?" He replied: "Sleep is the brother of death, and the People of the Garden will not die." (Al-Bayhaqi)
There Will Be No Disagreement
• ... Their hearts will be as one heart, and they will glorify Allah morning and evening… (Narrated by Abu Hurayra, Sahih Muslim).
There Will Be No Sadness or Anxiety
• ... We are those who live forever so we do not perish, and we are those who live in ease so we do not live in want and distress, and we are those who are pleased and contented so we are not dissatisfied. Happy are those who are for us and for whom we are. (At-Tirmidhi)
• ... There are no troubles or perils there... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 170/1]
The People of Garden Will See Presence of Allah
• At this the veil will be lifted and they will understand that there is nothing more delightful than seeing Allah their Lord. (Buyuk Hadis Kulliyati (Great Ahadith Collection), Cem'ul-Fevaid min Cami'il-usul and Mecma'iz-zevaid, Imam Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman ar-Rudani, vol.5, p. 415/10130]
• The People of Garden enter into the presence of Allah for the first time... Each one sits on cushions of pearl emerald, ruby, gold and silver in that assembly, according to his virtuous deeds. Their eyes have never been so bright... They then return to their places in the longing that this will be repeated on the next day. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 120/3]
They Have Won the Favor of Allah
• So they will say, "At Your service, and Your good pleasure, and all good is in Your hands." He will say, "Are you pleased?" They will say, "Why should we not be pleased, Lord, when You have given us that which You have not any others of Your creatures?" (Sahih al-Bukhari)
The Joy of Having Been Saved from the Fire
• Everyone in garden will see his place in hell and say "What if Allah had not granted me salvation?" And they will give thanks... [Ramuz al-Ahadith-2, p. 342/1]
There Are Ranks in the Garden
• ... They also receive Garden in proportion to their good deeds. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 198/17]
• The People of the Garden will see the people of the highest ranks above them just as you see the pearly stars ghaabir on the horizons from the east to the west, because of the differences of rank between them. (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim)
• In the Garden there are a hundred degrees Allah has prepared for those who strive in the way of Allah. What is between two degrees is as much as what is between the heaven and the earth. So when you ask Allah, ask Him for Firdaws because it is the best of the Garden and the highest of the Garden. (Sahih al-Bukhari)
• The least of the people of the Garden in degree will be the one who gazes at his gardens, his wives, his servants, his couches stretching for the distance travelled in a thousand year. The noblest of them to Allah will be one who gazes on His jamal morning and evening. (Surat al-Qiyama: 21-22) (At-Tirmidhi)
The Qualities of the People of the Garden
• ... What are the things that most ensure they enter the Garden? Fear of Allah and noble qualities of character… (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 1, p.12/8)
• .. What Allah wants is for you not to forget decay in the grave, those among you and those who have gone before, and those at your head. Whoever desires the bounty of the Hereafter must abandon the mentality of this world. That person will then "have merited his just desserts from Allah." He will then have won the friendship of Allah. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-2, p. 343/2]
Experiencing the Joy of the Garden
• A tiny corner in the Garden is better than the world and everything in it. [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 132/9]
The People of Garden Are Ordained in Destiny
• The names of the People of Garden, and those of their fathers and tribes, are all ordained. There will be no increase or decline in their numbers until the Day of Judgment. … [Ramuz al-Ahadith-1, p. 155/3]


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Blokus MENSA Best Mind Game 2003 Spiel Des Jahres Nominee 2002 Designer(s): Bernard Tavitian Manufacturer(s): Educational Insights Year: 2003 Store: Series: Genre: Format: Edition: Other: Editor's Pick Family Games Games | Family Games | Kids Games Blokus Abstract Strategy Board Games Blokus 2006 Board Game Geek Gift Guide | Gifts for new gamers | Games for Non-gamers | Gifts for your family | Games for older children | Funagain Recommended Games Players: 2 - 4 Time: 20 - 30 minutes Ages: 5 and up Est. time to learn: Under 5 minutes Not only is Blokus one of the most beautiful games to be found, it is also a tremendous two to four player strategy game. There are literally only two rules, allowing the game to be accessible to even the most casual of players; and games can end in ten minutes! Players take turns laying down twenty-one pieces of different shapes on a grid, attempting to block their opponents and make more room for themselves. The player who places the most translucent plastic pieces is the winner, as players seek to expand their own territory in this clever little game. Image Gallery: Contents: 1 board of 400 squares 84 pieces in 4 colors Instruction Guide Editorial Reviews: Mark Engelberg Blokus is an excellent spatial game for the whole family. I say "for the whole family" because the game is substantially BLOKUS more interesting for adults than most kids' games. The game is completely abstract, with no theme, but with its colorful geometric pieces, most kids won't mind at all. Each player begins the game with an assortment of geometric shapes. One player has all the red shapes, one has all the green shapes, etc. Players take turns deploying pieces to a grid-board in such a way that the piece touches a same-colored piece at one or more corners, but not along any edge. Once the board is mostly filled and no one can make a legal play, the game ends and the person whose remaining pieces have the smallest total area wins. Although this summary may be a bit tricky to follow without the illustrations, the rules are actually extraordinarily simple. If your child understands what it means for two shapes to touch at a corner, and to touch along an edge, then your child will be able to grasp this game. This game offers ample opportunity for kids to learn and exercise strategic and tactical thinking skills. The game's biggest drawback is that it is really optimal with exactly four players. You can play with two players by doubling up colors, or with three players by using a neutral color, but these solutions aren't terribly satisfactory. A couple of other things to be aware of before choosing this game: First, the pieces rest fairly shallowly in the board; clumsy kids may find themselves knocking the pieces out of their locations all too easily. Second, the number of available options dwindles dramatically in the second half of the game, so young players may need assistance in locating the few available legal moves. GAMES Magazine Reviews: John McCallion Jan 01, 2004 Congratulations to Educational Insights for publishing this colorful game (included in last year's Games 100 as an import). Your 21 colored pieces show all the ways in which one to five squares can be orthogonally joined. Use one piece to cover a corner square of the 20x20 board on your first turn. Thereafter, you may only place pieces that touch at least one of your other pieces--but only at corners! Only opposing pieces can meet at edges. Pass if unable to play. The game ends when everyone is blocked. Win by having unplayed pieces covering the smallest total area. The solitaire puzzle option is excellent practice for competitive play. John McCallion Jan 01, 2003 Twenty-one pieces in your color represent all the ways in which one to five squares can be joined orthogonally. On your first turn, lay a piece to cover a corner square of the 20 x 20 board. On subsequent turns, place a piece to touch at least at an edge. Anyone unable to play passes. Play ends when everyone is blocked, and the player with the fewest squared in unplayed pieces wins. Whether you tackle the vexing solitaire puzzle or get involved in the deep territorial intrigues of competitive play, you'll find this simple and colorful game addictively fascinating. Fans of this game can join the Blokus Federation at www.blokus.com. Counter Magazine Reviews: Ben Baldanza Jun 01, 2002 Blokus is an in-your-face, territory domination game in abstract format. It is a highly interactive contest that is best with four players and with its fast play and good replay ability it is one of the more interesting, if lesser known, new games around. Part of its obscurity may be its French origin and the fact that few comments have been made about it in most of the normal German game sources. The board is a raised plastic square with slightly raised gridlines. Each player receives an identical set of 21 pieces, with sizes from one to five grid-size squares in unique orientations. Each player's goal is to place as many pieces as they can on the board, with minus points assigned at the end equal to the total number of squares not placed. So, if I BLOKUS am left with a 5-square piece, a 3-square piece and a 2-square piece, I score negative 10 points. The key, of course, is how the pieces are placed. The first piece must be placed in a corner of the board and each piece from then on must touch only the corners of any piece previously placed. This typically results in a fast race to the middle of the board in order to leave many expansion options open. On any given turn, there are obviously two choices to be made: which piece to place and where to place it. These decisions can be made to quickly place an unusually shaped piece that will be difficult to fit in later, to perfectly squeeze in a piece that has been left open by other placements, to create an outlet for more pieces by opening a new area of the board with a placement, or to play the right size piece to cut off an opponent's growth. In practicality, the best moves do several of these at once and the player that can see the board and its development best, along with good sequencing of their pieces, will prove victorious. Within this straightforward process, amazingly intricate patterns develop and the choices for attack versus defense reveal themselves quickly. It is necessary to leave options open for growth, lest you be cut off without the right piece left to open up a new area of the board. It is especially satisfying to find a key placement that extends a seemingly dead-end link; of course, finding those spots for your opponent is also key. If you manage to place all of your pieces, you score a 15-point bonus and that is raised to 20 if you manage to place the one, single-square piece as your final play. These bonuses only make sense in the context of multiple games, obviously, since the only other scores are negative and thus zero would be an easy winner in a single game. The pieces in Blokus are nicely colored plastic that are hearty enough for normal play, but will certainly break or crack if stepped on accidentally. The game comes packaged with rules in four languages, a trend that is nicely becoming more common especially with non-German European producers. There is a nice implementation of the game online at www.blokus.com, and it is worth trying the game here before buying a physical copy to see if this is your cup of tea. The physical game is worth owning, though, as it will appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike and provides a refreshing and interesting play in a short period of time. Customer Reviews: Average rating: 4.5 in 29 reviews. One of the best games EVER. Jacqueline H. Apr 08, 2007 We LOVE Blokus. It takes literally ten seconds to learn how to play, but the game itself is sophisticated and elegant, and you never get tired of playing. Each player gets 21 pieces of their own color that are comprised of from one to five squares attached together in various configurations - sort of like Tetris pieces. All you have to do is put down pieces of your color, touching other pieces at the corners. Your pieces cannot touch your pieces of the same color on any side. The goal is to unload all of your pieces. The person with the fewest number of squares left at the end of the game wins. That's it. As the board fills up, it becomes increasingly difficult to place your pieces, and you have to place pieces both defensively and "offensively" in order to be a really good strategic player. Children as young as three can participate and play without strategy - they'll still enjoy it. If you put the pieces into plastic ziploc bags, it's extremely packable for traveling because the board, while about a foot square and not foldable, is flat, so it fits nicely into a suitcase (although not into, say, a backpack). The one drawback of this game is that it really works by far the best if it is played by four people exactly. More than four cannot play (except on teams). Fewer than four is cumbersome because all four colors MUST be played at each game. In games with three players, each player must take turns playing the fourth un-manned color. In games with two players, each player plays two colors, but this shifts the focus to protecting your own color pieces, which thwarts interesting play. Oddly, you CAN play Blokus solitaire, trying to get all the pieces of all colors "legally" on the board, which is really challenging and fun. It's a great game for two couples to play, or four friends. We've actually started having Blokus parties. Even people who don't like games like Blokus. It's not hard to convince people to learn it because it's so easy to learn, and you don't have to play too seriously if you don't want to. The board is beautiful, too. I completely recommend it. BLOKUS I love this game! Jennifer Distad Apr 06, 2006 This is a fun, compelling game. Recently, I introduced this to some friends. As soon as we had finished our first game, the board was cleared for round two. As everyone was intent over their pieces and the constantly growing terrain, random comments of appreciation for Blokus kept surfacing like, "I love the satisfying click you get when you put a piece on the board." The components are top quality. The board does not fold down (presuambly to avoid the disruption of hinges), so the box takes up a bit of space on the game shelf. But, it's sturdy plastic, and the pieces are also sturdy plastic, in attractive translucent colors. The gameplay is simple to teach, and can be learned in about 1 minute. The outcome, however, is different every time. The game plays well with two or four players. I have not tried the three player variant yet, but am skeptical that it would play as well (think "neutral army" in two-player Risk). If you're not sure if this game is up your alley, you can always try it online first at blokus.com. Again, I highly recommend this game! If you already have and enjoy Blokus, consider Tantrix--another spatially challenging game. Blokus is for Everyone! Bryan Munson Feb 03, 2006 I am going to let my 11-year-old son review this game so we can get a younger perspective on it: "I think this game is a good game for kids. Even kids that are in kindergarten. It's a game that can be played over and over and you never get tired of it because it teaches you how to use a grid, and it is a very good strategy game. What I like best about it is, it is not that hard to put together and it doesn't take that long to play. It's AWESOME! It has to be on your game shelf." I couldn't agree more. Blokus is a sure-fire family favorite. BLOKUS
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This is a long post. In fact, it is one of my longest post. I have written about his before and I decided to do a repost because the "FOUR DHARMKAYA RELIC MANTRAS AMULET" and the "LAMA ATISHA AMULET" will play a very important role this year and the coming years. Separately, both amulets are quite powerful but combined they are simply one of the best. I decided to repost / rewrite this so that you will understand what they are about and how special they are.
I have been wanting to write about these two powerful amulets for a long time, since I started this blog, but it was only 2013 when Guru Lama gave me the permission to write about it.
I've known about THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and the LAMA ATISHA PROTECTION AMULET for quite some time now and I've always wanted to write about them, however, THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and the LAMA ATISHA PROTECTION AMULET both requires a special permission for one to be able to write about them.
In one of my trips to Singapore last 2012, I met with my guru Lama, and when I informed him about my blog and my desire to write about THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and the LAMA ATISHA PROTECTION AMULET, he said that I can only write about them once he has given me the permission and once we have ensured that writing it will benefit my readers as well and that I will write for a bigger purpose. In short, I cannot write about them only because I believe in THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and LAMA ATISHA PROTECTION AMULET and that I want to write about it. He also added that I need to pass several 'test' before I can write about them. I cannot go into details as to what are those tests are but it involves an oracle to be done by my guru Lama.
As you can discern, I was already given the permission to write about THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and the LAMA ATISHA PROTECTION AMULET, this is because I did pass the test, and the oracle indicated that I could start writing about them because this has a higher purpose. I'll write about the higher purpose in the third part of this series.
I will first write about the THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRA. It is not just one of the most powerful mantra in the world, but more than that it is also considered as relic, and it is one of the most powerful relics in Buddhism.
THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS is perhaps one of the most powerful Buddhist relics. It is considered as a first class relic and is considered by high lamas, like Lama Zopa Rinpoche, to be one of the most important mantra and sacred relics in the world.
THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS is compose of four (4 ) different relic mantras, and these are the following:
To be completely honest, it took me years of on and off lessons before I understood the importance of the THE FOUR DHARMKAYA RELIC MANTRAS, but even then I don't think I understand it completely.
However, what I'm sure of is having this relic is a great wonderful blessing of incomparable magnitude.
For those who are currently facing some difficulties in their life, THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS is sure to help make things easier. It's also good to create good karma.
I first heard about the wonderful power of THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS several years back, I was already a student of Feng Shui then but not yet a serious student of Buddhism. This happened in Malaysia. I was looking for a Prayer Wheel that used a microfilm; this was when Prayer Wheels are still mostly made of ordinary paper. When I wasn't able to get what I was looking for, the seller told me that more than the Prayer Wheel; I should get myself a FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS and use it as an amulet. That was the first time I heard about THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS, and the seller told me about it.
According to the seller, he used to be poor, as in poor as one can be, his mother and himself lives on the street and they were times when they are only able to eat once – a – day and only if somebody will give them their scraps.
One of the places that they frequent is a Buddhist temple, and there a monk, would always give them food whenever he is around. In exchange, his mom would always ask him to help out in the temple. And although the monk doesn't have much either because of his vow of poverty, and would only eat what was donated to him, he would always make sure that he has something for the seller and his mom.
One time, the monk gave him a 3 pieces of bread (mantou – a siopao dough without the meat). He only ate one, and when asked why, he explained that he would give 2 pieces to his mom. This earned him some praise from the monk. He then left to look for his mom to give the bread. On his way to look for his mom, who is doing some menial jobs in nearby market in exchange for a small amount of money, he came across a boy who looks really hungry. According to the seller he took pity, and decided to give a piece to the boy, although he also said that he had second thoughts because a piece of bread, for somebody who is always looking for food like them is a very big thing. Nevertheless, he said since he knows how it is to be really hungry; he decided to give it to the boy. Little did he know that the monk followed him to give him some fruits. The monk saw what he did and asked told him to bring he should ask his mom to go with him to the temple the next day.
When the seller and his mom arrived at the temple the following day, a monk told his mom about the generous act of the seller, who was a young boy then. The monk told his mom that he is giving both of them a powerful mantra written on yellow paper that they must wear on their body at all times. The said paper was already rolled and put in a leather pouch.
According to the seller, as soon as they started wearing the mantra on their body things started to change. Things started to get better. His mom found a regular job, and he got to go to school with the help of a businessman who owns the company where his mother works as a janitress.
As proof, the seller showed me the mantra given to them by the monk; it is now enclosed in a gold amulet holder, which he wears as a pendant. According to the seller, he has since married and was gifted with 11 children, who all became professionals! He humbly shared that the poor homeless boy now has 2 houses in the US, a house in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Germany! Of course, not to mention his 4 houses in Malaysia. He simply works because he doesn't want to grow senile and his store also becomes a venue for him to share Buddhist amulets to people who can't afford them.
It was only later that he found out that the mantra given to him by the monk is a blessed copy of THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS.
I like his story but didn't put so much thought about the THE FOUR DHARMKAYA RELIC MANTRAS, until my guru Lama gave one copy to me and told me about it's marvelous benefits.
It has the power to save us from harm and bless us if we strive to have a good heart.
It also has the power to bring us to enlightenment, something that every Buddhists aspire for.
It has the power to give us good rebirth.
It has the power to grant us enough financial wealth luck.
If you don't know whether a place your going to has good or bad Feng Shui or Chi, wearing a copy of THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS on your body has the ability to protect you from all the negative chi or bad effects of the bad Feng Shui of a place.
Most Buddhist scriptures states that THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS should be put inside a stupa for it to be effective, and most of the teaching of Lama Zopa Rinpoche indicates that it should be put inside a stupa. However, the Dalai Lama said that although a stupa is preferred, it is not a requisite for THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS to be effective. A stupa is not the most practical thing to have by most people. It's quite difficult to acquire one. And as we can see with the story of the seller, THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS was effective even if it was just place inside a leather pouch. My own copy of the THE FOUR DHARMKAYA RELIC MANTRAS was initially just placed inside a red cloth; I later transferred it to a metal amulet holder.
Allow me to post here what Lama Zopa Rinpoche has to say about THE FOUR DHARMAKAYA RELIC MANTRAS. Please note that this was originally intended for other monks or Lamas so you have to make some adjustments in its interpretation to make it more applicable to a layperson like us.
The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras and Their Benefits
by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The four dharmakaya relic mantras (Stainless Pinnacle Deity, Secret Relic, Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light, and 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment) are a sacred relic. They are the highest relics of Buddha, relics of the dharmakaya. Other relics, the ones that we normally see, such as relics of the robes or parts of Buddha's holy body, are secondary relics. These four mantras are the highest relic. After I learned about the unbelievable benefits of each of these mantras, I had them written down and we printed many. These are normally what we should put inside stupas, statues, and so on. These very special mantras give unbelievable power. If you have put these mantras inside a statue, the devas will come to worship that holy object three times a day.
By putting these mantras inside a stupa, even a bell that is offered to the stupa brings unimaginable benefit. For example, the negative karma of all sentient beings who hear the sound of that bell is purified. They are liberated from the lower realms. Their negative karma is purified and they receive a good rebirth. In that way, there is unbelievable benefit. It makes it so easy for sentient beings to purify negative karma and reach enlightenment.
Also, if you circumambulate a stupa that has these mantras inside even one time, it purifies the negative karma that causes you to be reborn in all the eight hot hells. The negative karma that causes you to be born in all the eight hot hells – from the lightest down to the heaviest, most unbearable suffering hell realm – is completely purified by going around a stupa with these mantras inside just once.
The Very Essence of the Extensive Benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras
The benefits of circumambulating and so forth are extensively explained, including the benefits from the tantric side, in the sutra called Arya Compassionate Eye Looking One and in the sutra called Compassionate White Lotus, and so forth.
Stainless Pinnacle Deity Mantra (Tsugtor Drime) As explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the mantra of the Stainless Pinnacle Deity (Tsugtor Drime):
It purifies completely the karmic obstacles of the five uninterrupted negative karmas (killing one's father or mother, killing an arhat, causing blood to flow from a buddha, and causing a schism in the Sangha).
One will be completely liberated from the hell, hungry ghost, and animal realms and from the evil-gone realm of the yama world.
One will have a long life.
Like a snake changing its skin, when leaving the body, one will have the fortune to go to the blissful realm (i.e., a pure land).
One will never be stained by the smell of the womb.
All one's wishes will be completely and exactly fulfilled.
If you put this mantra inside a stupa, you will never be reborn in the lower realms and will have a pure life until you achieve enlightenment. You will have good rebirths up until enlightenment is achieved.
This is most amazing. We have so many human problems that we can't bear, so how could we bear the sufferings of the lower realms, such as being born as an insect, much less being born a hell being, animal, or preta? When human beings have problems, they can communicate. They can try many ways to resolve the problems. But animals and pretas cannot do this, and their suffering is so much greater. They have unbelievable problems, so there is no question about the hell beings whose suffering is unimaginably heavier.
So it is unbelievably precious that we can be freed forever from these sufferings, just by putting the Stainless Pinnacle Deity's mantra inside stupas (100,000 copies of this mantra should be put into stupas). From now on, we will have pure lives and higher rebirths up until enlightenment is achieved.
So there are incredible benefits from building stupas and putting these Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras inside. It is so easy to purify all the heavy negative karmas from beginningless rebirth. Anyone who has the opportunity to put this mantra inside a stupa is therefore the most fortunate being in the world. They create the cause for long life, as well as to be reborn in a pure land. Of course, this brings a lot of merit, but that didn't happen without cause and effect and conditions, meaning we created a lot of good karma in the past.
Secret Relic Mantra (Sangwa Rigsel) Also, as explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, if you have this mantra inside a holy object, then all the buddhas will abide in that holy object. Therefore, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the Secret Relic mantra (Sangwa Rigsel):
One purifies the negative karma of the ten non-virtuous actions and so forth, and will be completely liberated from the eight hot hells, including the unbearable hell (Avici). One also purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas
One will never turn back from peerless enlightenment. (That is, one will never go down; one's life will always be directed toward enlightenment. This is irreversible; one will never go in the opposite direction.)
One will always attain higher rebirth.
By printing the Secret Relic Mantra, if you are given the blessing to print it, just once, you collect the same amount of merit as making offerings to 100,000 x 10 million x 100 billion buddhas. This was told to Vajrapani.
Having made offerings to as many buddhas as there are in ninety-nine sesame seed pods – that is how much merit you create and you are always guided by that many buddhas.
This is just a drop from the unimaginable benefits of this mantra.
Zung of the Completely Pure Stainless Light (Özer Drime) There are many Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light mantras, and they are all contained within the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras. These mantras have unbelievable, mindblowing skies of benefit. As explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefit in making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the Zung of the Completely Pure Stainless Light (Özer Drime):
If one offers even a bell to a stupa containing this mantra, all the sentient beings in that area, animals or humans, by hearing the sound of that bell will be completely purified of the five uninterrupted negative karmas.
Normally, committing the five uninterrupted negative karmas causes one to be reborn in the lowest hot hell, which is extremely heavy suffering, but having this mantra inside a stupa purifies it all. This shows how unbelievably powerful this mantra is. Since even hearing the sound of a bell offered to such a stupa has incredible power to purify, there is no question that any insect or other being who sees or touches the stupa is purified of negative karma. Even just thinking about the stupa purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas. That is amazing! It is so powerful! It is like a small flame that eventually grows into a fire that burns many thousands of miles of forest or entire cities.
Even water, rain or dust that just touches the stupa is so blessed that it purifies all the negative karmas of the insects on the ground who come into contact with it. And
the wind that touches such a stupa purifies the negative karmas of people or animals that it contacts and brings a good rebirth. Even if the shadow of the stupa touches people and insects, their heavy negative karma is purified.
From the Kangyur:
If this mantra is put inside a stupa then any being, including evil transmigratory beings, who sees the stupa, hears of the stupa, touches the stupa, or who is touched by dust or wind that comes from this stupa, will be free from all negative karmas. They will be born in the realms of happy transmigratory beings1 and they won't be reborn in the lower realms.
Everything that touches the land the stupa is on becomes meaningful, including the rain that touches the stupa and then flows to the ground and touches worms. The worms' negative karma is purified and they will receive a higher rebirth.
If there is a stupa containing this mantra in the center of a road or above a road and cars can pass under it or go around it, this is unbelievable purification. It doesn't only purify the negative karma of this life, it purifies the negative karma of many past lives and plants the seed of enlightenment.
The Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond [Shakyamuni Buddha] advised the Bodhisattva Great Sattva: Eliminating All Obscurations, Owner of the Secrecy, Vajra in the Hand [Vajrapani], the four guardians, the deva Unforgettable2 Owner [Brahma], and the devas of Tsangri, the Maha Deva, [the Hindu God Mahashora], and so forth: "You, the capable holy beings, I hand over this heart of the king of the secret mantra. Always keep it, put it in a jeweled samato [container]. Then proclaim it to all places. Continually reveal it to sentient beings. If you make sentient beings hear and see this mantra, their five uninterrupted negative karmas will be purified."
100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment (Jangchub Gyänbum) Finally, as explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the mantra of the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment (Jangchub Gyänbum):
By putting even just one mantra of the Ornament of Enlightenment inside a stupa, it brings the same merit as having built 100,000 stupas – whether the stupa is gigantic like Bodhgaya or tiny like the size of a finger. Then, if you dedicate this merit for sentient beings, for their happiness up to full enlightenment, they receive unbelievable benefits and you receive unbelievable merit.
One collects the merit of having made offerings to all the buddhas, to all the Dharma, and to all the Sangha. Why? Because when you make offerings to a stupa
containing the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment Mantra, you are not only making offering to a stupa. It becomes an offering to all the buddhas, the Three Rare Sublime Ones – all the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha that exist in the ten directions, in any universe.
After a person has died, chant that person's name during the exact moment you put the mantra inside the stupa (before placing it inside the stupa, the mantra should be rolled correctly and covered in yellow cloth). Then you make offerings to the stupa – either actual offerings, or visualized, as in the seven limb prayer. If you visualize offerings, visualize all the flowers inside and outside, all the food offerings, all the water offerings, all the light offerings, everything! You can use all the offerings at my houses in California and Washington, as well as all the offerings at all the FPMT centers.
Buddha said to Ananda: "I explained this sutra for those beings who have very little merit and no devotion, for those who are overcome by doubt and cannot believe in the Dharma. For those sentient beings, I explained the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment mantra." That means Buddha explained this mantra for us.
Buddha also told Ananda: "In future times, if ordained ones don't read this sutra that contains the benefits of this mantra and don't make offering to this mantra, which makes it so unbelievably easy to purify the negative karma that causes one to be reborn in the lower realms and to accumulate the merit to achieve enlightenment and then offer extensive benefit to sentient beings, those ordained ones will suffer in the same way as householders. But if one listens to this teaching and then makes even one stupa with this mantra inside, one makes offering to all the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha." This means that this mantra is an antidote to the 84,000 delusions, and one creates inconceivable heaps of merit. This is the same as reading the sutra called Tongpa Denpe Do (Sutra of the Ornamented Trunk)
When you put these four dharmakaya relic mantras inside a stupa, even mentioning the name of a person or animal that has died and praying for them brings them a good rebirth, such as birth in a pure land. That person will definitely be liberated from the lower realms. It is very powerful. You can also do the same for very sick people, making dedications for them to be healthy. As you put the mantras inside the stupa (or holy object), you should do the seven-limb practice and make the dedication for that person. This is a very powerful method for healing.
Holy objects such as these liberate sentient beings continuously twenty-four hours a day, every day. They purify the causes of the lower realms and bring sentient beings to the higher realms where they can meet the Dharma and then reach liberation and enlightenment.
Creating holy objects with these special mantras inside and making them available to others brings constant, unbelievable benefit to sentient beings. As soon as stupas and statues of the Buddha are made, they have the power to cause sentient beings to do actions such as circumambulating, prostrating, offering, and so forth, which then become virtuous actions creating the cause of enlightenment, even if those actions are done with the eight worldly dharmas3 and non-virtuous thoughts. These holy objects make it possible for sentient beings to create the cause to meet the Dharma and actualize the path. So even though we who are making these holy objects do not have realizations such as bodhichitta or emptiness, nor have we reached any of the bodhisattva bhumis, the holy objects we make still have the power to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering, to actualize all the realizations of the path – Guru devotion, the three principles of the path, and the two stages – and then to achieve enlightenment.
These are illustrations of the activity of the Buddha's unbelievable compassion toward us sentient beings and are but a few of the drops of Buddha's unbelievable methods to liberate sentient beings quickly from the sufferings of samsara.
Colophon: This teaching is a compilation of advice from three different occasions: dictated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, November 2002. Section of the benefits is from the Kangyur, which is the essence of all the Buddha's teachings.
Additional benefits for the Stainless beam mantra extracted from "Zung of the Completely Pure Exalted Beam Stainless Light," translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and dictated to Ven. Matthew Tenzin, Kachoe Dechen Ling, February, 2005. Lightly edited by Holly Ansett and Kendall Magnussen, May, 2005. Additional teachings on the benefits of these mantras from a teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kachoe Dechen Ling on November 26, 2006. Transcribed by Ven> Lobsang Yangchen, checked and arranged by Ven. Holly Ansett, and edited by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, May 2007. All teachings compiled in this form by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, May 2007
Zung is commonly understood to mean "mantra." Rinpoche has further explained zung as "the unforgettable remembrance special wisdom, functioning to stop non-virtue and create virtue."


text: The new (old) Polaroid camera, the Polaroid 300, is about to be released in May. That's great news, because I always liked the instant photos that Polaroids took. However, there's some bad news: it costs $90 (USD). On top of that, you'll have to pay $10 for just 10 shots.


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Strict new Covid-19 measures are now in effect in the capital – here's what they mean for you.
IT'S A QUESTION that has been asked throughout the pandemic, but which has been raised again recently after the Oliver Bond Street party – would you call the Gardaí on your neighbours if you saw they broke Covid-19 restrictions on mass gatherings?
In the UK, junior minister for policing Kit Malthouse suggested that people should report their neighbours to the police if they're concerned about gatherings that break the rules.
At the moment, Dublin is at Level Three which means that you can have visitors from one other household to your home or garden; while the rest of the country is at Level Two, which means you can have six visitors from up to three households to your home or garden.
So we're asking you: Would you call the Gardaí if you saw your neighbours break Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings?
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In the first instalment of our new wellness diary series, we hear from a reader who's struggling to find time for herself.
We asked our anonymous teacher to share her views and those of some of her students on the recent controversy surrounding To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dublin City Council councillors last night voted in favour of retaining a 15% cut. Here, Michael Pidgeon argues why he believes this to be a regressive step.
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"The course of our lives is not determined by great, awesome decisions. Our direction is set by the little day-to-day choices which chart the track on which we run." -- Gordon B. Hinckley
The date: Thursday, December 6, 1917. The place: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The event: The collision of the French cargo ship S.S. Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian S.S. Imo. Here is that story.
Because Halifax has one of the deepest, ice-free natural harbors in the world, in 1910 it became the command center of the Royal Canadian Navy. Halifax thrived during times of war and was even more prominent during World War I.
On December 3, 1917 the Norwegian ship S.S. Imo had stopped in Halifax on its way from Holland to New York to take on relief supplies for Belgium. While there the Imo had a neutral inspection and waited two days for refueling. Waiting for the anti-submarine nets to be raised, the Imo had to wait one more day.
The French cargo ship S.S. Mont-Blanc, fully loaded with munitions (TNT, picric acid, Benzol and guncotton) arrived from New York the same evening.
Crossing from the outer harbor into the basin required passage through a section known as "The Narrows," which allowed traffic in both directions simultaneously. The rules for shipping traffic were similar to land-based traffic -- ships were expected to keep to the starboard (right) side of the Narrows as they passed oncoming traffic. The Imo was granted clearance to leave the basin at 7:30 a.m. on the morning of December 6 but due to traffic, entered the Narrows on the port (left) side. The Imo had to stay on that side to pass a tug boat which was also in the Narrows.
Meanwhile the Mont-Blanc was cleared at 7:00 a.m. to make its way to the basin. She stopped briefly for ferry traffic to pass before resuming passage down the Narrows. She then spotted the Imo approaching her lane at a high rate of speed. In spite of blasts from both ships and emergency maneuvers, the collision occurred at 8:45 a.m. pushing the Imo nine feet into the Mont-Blanc hull. Sparks caused an uncontrollable fire and at 9:04:35 a.m. the cargo of the Mont-Blanc exploded with more force than any manmade explosion before it.
The force released was equivalent to roughly three kilotons of TNT destroying the ship and launching the remains of her hull nearly 1,000 feet into the air. White-hot shards of iron rained down on Halifax and neighboring Dartmouth. The barrel of one of Mont-Blanc's guns landed 3.5 miles to the north while part of her anchor landed 2.0 miles to the south.
A cloud of smoke rose 20,000 feet in the air while over 400 acres was completely destroyed by the explosion. A tsunami rose 60 feet above the harbor's high-water mark, carrying the Imo onto the shore at Dartmouth.
Nearly 2,000 people were killed while 9,000 were injured. Every building within a 16 mile radius (over 12,000) was destroyed or badly damaged. Hundreds of people who had been watching the fire from their homes were blinded when the blast wave shattered the windows in front of them. The disaster damaged buildings and shattered windows 10 miles away and was felt and heard as far away as Prime Edward Island approximately 130 miles north and North Cape Breton approximately 220 miles east.
In 1994 a team of scientists and historians compared a total of 130 major non-nuclear explosions and they included, "Halifax harbor remains unchallenged in overall magnitude as long as five criteria are considered together: number of casualties, force of the blast, radius of devastation, quantity of explosive material, and total value of property destroyed."
No one wanted that awful explosion to take place. A multitude of minor decisions could have avoided it entirely. How easy it is to put all of our attention only on the biggest decisions. As Kerri Russell said, "Sometimes, it's the smallest decisions that change your life forever."
Think about it.


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We consider Weddings Plus DJ Service to be the triple cities premier DJ service. We are past owners of the areas largest DJ service with over 25 year.......more dj info
There is no job to big or too small for us at New Era Entertainment and we DO IT ALL!.......more dj info
We offer professionalism,extensive digital library,customized music for any event,specializing in Weddings, with over 16 years experience. When you bo.......more dj info
AP Entertainment is the most talked about DJ company in the Souther Tier of New York! AP Entertainment will bring you quality DJ services, trained by .......more dj info
We are a mobile DJ service unlike any other. Our mission is to taylor design a reception, dance, or party around your expectations and to exceed them.......more dj info
If you are looking for an entertainer that will deliver an experience, then I would be a great choice. I offer the best in sound and lighting for yo.......more dj info
The Southern Tiers Ultimate Entertainment. Most modern lighting & sound equipment. In buisness since 1980 Thousands of satisfied customers. 100% sati.......more dj info
I offer you a light show, karaoke, and any types of music you want to hear for any event you are planning. Many options are open for you event. Prices.......more dj info
I have been singing and entertaining people for over 20 years..I love to see people just having fun ..I specialize in singing standards with tracks fo.......more dj info
I am a professional singer with the seventeen piece Mason Warrington Orchestra which plays in the Triple Cities area. I also perform on my own using .......more dj info
Providing professional events in the Southern Tier. We are available for Weddings, Private Parties, Graduations, and Ethnic events. In additio.......more dj info
We provide Disc Jockey, Master of Ceremonies, Sound and Lighting services for all types of events........more dj info
We are a professional music entertainment company. We specialize in Sweet Sixteens, Mitzvahs, and weddings, but any event that you are hosting we can .......more dj info
Creative entertainment ideas, photo booths, dramatic lightscaping, and emotional slide shows all come together to create celebrations with style........more dj info
Sound Selection offers only the best in DJ, Photo Booth & Lighting services!.......more dj info
I have the experience in reading a crowd and KNOWING when to play the right song . In my experiences, it's music genres, tempo, styles, and trends tha.......more dj info
Beach Bum DJ & Karaoke Service is Privately Owned & Operated by John & Gloria. We have been in Business for over 20 years offering our services for We.......more dj info
KMK Entertainment/Karaoke Krooners are your experienced, professional disc Jockeys specializing in receptions, parties, social events, bars & pubs and.......more dj info